A carved pumpkin with a candle inside

Make the most of Halloween & Bonfire Night (without breaking the law)

Halloween and Bonfire Night are nearly here – along with the disappointment of two big nights out that never came to be.  With clubs shut, fireworks cancelled and a ban on mixing with those outside your household, this year’s autumnal excuses for a night out are pretty much non-existent. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy spooky season.

We’ve rounded up some ideas for bringing the fun to your student home, helping you celebrate in a way that’s safe, legal and considerate of your neighbours.

Before we get to the fun stuff, it’s worth reminding yourself of the current rules around mixing households and general antisocial behaviour. You can find all the details of the rules, regulations and consequences on the University’s Community Conduct page.

Halloween at home

  • First things first, dressing up is obviously still mandatory. Why not make it a competition with a prize for the best effort, either within your house or against your friends’ households via Zoom? 2020’s silver lining is all the time on your hands meaning this year you can go all-out – no Primark t-shirts spattered with fake blood this time, please.
  • Mix up a magic potion. There’s loads of Halloween-inspired recipes for cocktails and mocktails available, including these courtesy of BBC Good Food, and creating something yourself is infinitely more fun than ordering at a crowded bar.
  • Bobbing for apples might be a children’s activity, but we reckon it’s a good laugh at any age.
  • This is definitely one for before the magic potions. Level up your classic pumpkin carving with a game of Pumpkin Pictionary. Choose something like a place or object, set a timer and carve it into your pumpkin while your housemates guess what it is. When you’re done, keep things sustainable and find out how to stop your pumpkin going to waste with this handy article. 12.8 million pumpkins go uneaten each Halloween – don’t make yours one of them.
  • If your household is big on Halloween (and time), this one’s for you. Throw an at-home Halloween pub crawl, decorating each of your rooms in a different spooky theme and serving up drinks and snacks in each. Otley Run who?
  • Create or find a Halloween playlist to soundtrack the whole lot. Spotify’s got loads ready to go.

Bonfire Night

Our ‘do it at home’ Halloween philosophy doesn’t quite translate to the fire and explosives of Bonfire Night, and let’s be real here, scorch marks in the garden are a recipe for losing your deposit, and could even be a breach of your contract. So while fireworks might be off the cards this year, there’s still lots of (mostly food and drink-based) ways to feel the autumn vibes.

  • Go back in time to your childhood days and make toffee apples, or put a grown up spin on things and stir up some spiced apple cider.
  • Make dinner as a house, with something easy and traditional like hot dogs, or a classic winter warmer.
  • If you’re desperate to get outside, make sparklers your pyrotechnic of choice – just don’t underestimate their risk and make sure you’ve closely followed all the safety instructions. You could also toast marshmallows on a disposable barbecue if you have somewhere suitable to use one.
  • Or, simply snuggle up on the sofa, stay warm inside and keep your fingers crossed that some of your neighbours are having their own home displays. A bit of curtain-twitching’s acceptable for one night of the year.